Uber could be in trouble if it does not conquer electric scooters and bikes

Electric scooter sharing startups are becoming as dominant as Uber or Lyft in this wacky and well-funded transportation company that is revolutionizing transit in America.

At the same time, Uber learns that he may have to end up dominating the sharing of scooters, before companies like Bird, Lyft and Ofo cannibalize his flagship activity.

On Thursday, Santosh Rao, a political researcher at Uber, published an average article showing that Uber's trips dropped by 10% after the company's entry into the business sector. bike in February. During peak hours, Uber trips in cars and SUVs decreased by 15%.

Mike Dudas, an entrepreneur who has previously led the development of mobile business at Venmo, PayPal and Google, shared the average message in a tweet that went viral.

According to Dudas, the analysis shows that "the main activity of Uber in dense urban areas would be provided by scooters if they did not own them," in his own words.

Bird and Lime – two scooter sharing companies whose investors say they're destined to become the Uber and Lyft of sharing scooters based on the explosive growth of their users – "look like investments and more and more successful companies ".

Jump, a start-up that manufactures red electric motorcycles in the streets of San Francisco, Chicago, Austin and Washington, joined Uber in February to allow users to book rides on its app. Uber subsequently acquired Jump for nearly $ 200 million, which allowed him to find a place in the game as consumers tried new modes of transportation.

Since February, according to researcher Uber, the total number of trips booked on the Uber app has increased by 15% among "early jump adopters" – people who were making at least one trip by week (in Uber or Jump Bike) after their first jump round.

"The whole increase can be attributed to the use of eBikes," wrote Rao.

He adds: "To summarize, eBikes were popular with these early adopters and some Uber trips, especially during periods of congestion, have been replaced by jumping trips, a promising sign of eBike's ability to reduce congestion and reduce The fact that the demand for eBikes is currently limited by a limited supply (there are only 250 Jumpbikes in San Francisco) makes this offer all the more promising. "[19659009]

The message does not specify the cities in which Uber collected data. We have contacted Uber for more information on its methodology here and will update if we hear back.

He also neglected to mention the meteoric rise of sharing scooters, which could someday reduce Uber 's activity in the automotive field, in much the same way as Jump bikes. Scooters are good for trips even shorter than e-bikes, and are one less reason to book a car.

Shortly after jump bikes sprang up on the streets and sidewalks of San Francisco, electric scooters invaded. Hundreds of vehicles have covered the city before local authorities issue stop-and-go letters to their operators, forcing a temporary ban.

Twelve companies, including Bird, Lime, Uber (via Jump), and Lyft applied for licenses to operate scooters in San Francisco. The city is expected to issue a maximum of five licenses in August, TechCrunch reported Thursday.

With Uber joining the fray, the company shows that she refuses to be left in the dust.